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Tag Archives: Tenby

So this year’s summer holiday and our last holiday together before our little baby boy arrives, we are staying in the UK. So I booked us a 5* apartment in Saundersfoot in Wales using Holiday Cottages. I wanted to go to Saundersfoot as I had heard good things about it and nearby Tenby. This holiday diary is a long one about food, history and relaxing in Wales. So I understand if you skip ahead to look at the pictures!

So we set off on what we thought was a 4 hour drive but it ended up being pretty much a 6 hour drive. We stopped a couple of times on the way and got stuck behind every kind of slow vehicle there was going; army trucks, lorries, old biddy drivers, tractors etc. But it was a gorgeous drive through the valleys. We arrived at the St Brides Spa Hotel 5:30ish to pick up our keys for the apartment owned by St Brides. The apartment is lovely and we were so happy with it. It is a one bedroom with an open plan kitchen/dining/living room, with a balcony. It has a huge king-size bed and a view to the sea!

After we had settled in and unpacked (I actually do love to unpack!) We wandered down to Saundersfoot town to look around. It was so sunny and warm. The beach is beautiful and it has loads of little shops, pubs and restaurants. We had some delicious fish and chips at The Marina nothing like freshly caught fish deep fried in beef dripping. Such a lovely first evening on our babymoon.

Day 1 was a rainy and colder day (boo!) So we drove 5 minutes up the road to Tenby. Tenby is a Victorian holiday retreat and is a walled town with lots of little shops and colourful houses on the cliffs. The beach and harbour are beautiful and it has a castle ruin and some Museums. We wandered round the town looking at the castle and exploring the history of the place stopping at The Mooring for lunch.We each had our first Welsh Rarebit for lunch which is a cheese and mystard concoction similsr to a Croque Monsieur and I also had the pinkest hot chocolate. After lunch we drove down the coast stopping at Manorbier and Freshwater East. Each has it’s own gorgeous little beach and Manorbier has a huge castle that looks pretty intact. It is privately owned but was unfortunately shut the day we visited.

After a long nap for me, it’s hard work being on holiday, we wandered into Saundersfoot and had dinner at a local Seafood restaurant, The Stone Crab, the food was amazing and freshly caught that day! I had calamari and Fruits de Mer linguine with monkfish, salmon, cod and prawns, and he had devilled mackerel and a whole turbot. It was another perfect if cloudy evening.

Day 2 we had such a lazy morning. With us both having such stressful jobs and busy lives when we can we like to do nothing and this is what we did. We ate breakfast and chilled in our apartment. In the afternoon we went and sat on the Beach in Saundersfoot and had a picnic. It was cloudy but warm and a lovely place to be as it’s so sandy and the sea was calm. My husband actually went into the sea and swam but it is far too cold for me so I made do with paddling.

After a few hours snoozing, reading and eating ice cream on the Beach we had a wander. There is a coastal path that follows all of the coast in Pembrokeshire so we set off from Saundersfoot and walked to the next town Wisemans Bridge, following the path. For the walk you had to go through the cliffs into a tunnel and you come out the other side to a more rocky beach with rock pools. It’s lovely just to be together, walking and talking and putting the world to rights. That night it was sunny so we sat out on our balcony reading and enjoying the sun and made dinner at home. Such a lovely and peaceful day I’m very happy and calm here.

Day 3 today we drove to St Davids it’s the smallest city in the UK and to be honest doesn’t really feel like a city. We wandered round the huge St Davids Cathedral and had lunch actually at the Tourist Information Centre (because we’re cool and it was actually really nice). After lunch we discovered that you could walk along the coastal path out of St Davids to a little shrine for St Non, St David’s mother, which is still Catholic. I do like a chapel. The walk was beautiful right over the top overflow Caerfai Bay which is gorgeous and a clear blue in the sunshine. The walk was a little tough but I enjoyed it so much. The chapel itself was lovely and peaceful and I lit and candle in there. The ruined chapel is still there where St Non is supposed to have given birth to St David in a storm. After St Davids we stopped at an absolutely gorgeous beach we’d discovered on the way Newgale Sands for a while to make the most of the sunshine. It was a beautiful sunny day.

Day 4 today after another lazy morning eating chocolate croissants in bed (I could get used to this) we drove to Pembroke. Pembroke is home to provably the main castle in Pembrokeshire, aptly named Pembroke Castle. This castle is stocked full of history and their main famous part is that Henry VII was born there it’s a great place to take kids for the day. It’s a big castle and you can climb up the walls and see for miles. There is a huge round tower to climb up too. My husband loved it. We had a picnic by the river next to the castle and a little wander round Pembroke itself which has some lovely little shops. It was a very lovely and warm afternoon together. That evening we went down to the beach front in Saundersfoot for dinner at Beachside BBQ which serves bbq meat and fish and has a really chilled out atmosphere.

Day 5 today we went castle hunting. My husband loves castles and the history around each one. So today we went to Narbeth, Llandhaw and Wiston castle. The thing with these castles is they are all very ruined but free to go in. Narbeth is a little market town with great shops and cafes and the castle is at the bottom of the town overlooking the valley. Llandhaw is a Bishops Palace that has been left to ruin in a tiny hamlet it would have been absolutely huge and grand in its day. There were some people there Ghost hunting but I ain’t afraid of no ghost. Wiston is a traditional Motte and Bailey castle with just the Motte left and the outline of the Bailey shown in the ditches. It was a rainy day today but perfect weather for Castle hunting. We also visited a local manor house called Scolton Manor and had lunch in their café I wasn’t that keen on the manor house it is set up like it would have been in Victorian times when it was lived in by the Higgon family but it was very quiet and we didn’t stay very long. I’m sure its great in the main tourist season. After our hunting I was very tired so we came back to the apartment and had a chilled evening watching movies and eating spaghetti.

Day 6 our last day! I don’t want this holiday to end. On our last day my husband had been reading about all the beaches in Pembrokeshire. It apparently has the best beach in the UK, Barafundle Bay. It was another sunny morning so we drove down. This is a National Trust beach and is part of a place called Stackpole which has a little town and a quay. It has lots of parking and facilities. There is a walk up to it but this is over another coastal path that my husband loves and it wasn’t strenuous, once over the crest of the hill and you look down the beach is there and it’s beautiful. Truly beautiful and worth the visit. We sat on this beautiful beach in the sun all day just talking and reading and sleeping it was a perfect day to end the holiday. There were a few instances when the rain suddenly poured down whilst it was sunny but that’s a peril of being at the coast and were very funny. We had a quick brew at the National Trust cafe before we set off home again. For our last night we went back to the Stone Crab. I know We went earlier in the week but it’s so good there we didn’t fancy anywhere else. I had a huge bowl of mussels followed by a seafood paella and he had calimari followed by a mega surf and turf of a steak with half a lobster. Delicious. What I loved about this restaurant is it’s tiny and full the whole time and that there is one chef who changes the menu everyday to suit the catch of the day. We loved it the best seafood. Now however it’s back to reality and home to Mossley.

I have had a great Babymoon holiday with my husband. It’s been wonderful to get away just us two and spend loads of time together talking, exploring, laughing and relaxing. It’s been wonderful to be pregnant as well and be able to plan together what we will do when the baby comes. I can’t recommend this part of Wales enough and I know we will be back with our little boy one day.